Student Travel Award Report: 'Unmanned' Technologies

27 July 2015 -

The words ‘drone’, ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’ (UAV), or ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft System’ (RPAS) have become common features across contemporary global media reportage. Drones come in many shapes and sizes, spanning various defence, commercial and civilian applications. They are a proliferating technology whose path is still very much unfolding. One significant growth area within the 'unmanned' sector is that of bio-inspired drones.

My PhD research, conducted in the school of geography at the University of Exeter, explores the propagation of drones in military and commercial spheres, attending to a range of questions emergent in these distinct contexts. I am particularly interested in exploring the industries, institutions, and discourses that enable or subvert the proliferation of these technologies. Seeking to develop an emerging interest in the design of 'unmanned' technologies, I submitted an application to The Design History Society's Student Travel Award. The application outlined an interdisciplinary project seeking to bring together design history and geography literatures to develop an interest in exploring the design, aesthetic and cultural histories and lineages of the modern bio-inspired drone. In so doing, I presented the utility of beginning such an exploration in Florence, Italy, the home of a number of key museums and sites celebrating the vast and influential design works of Leonardo da Vinci. An exploration of da Vinci's work would prove an appropriate and valuable starting point to such an endeavour as he is a widely celebrated figure both in discussions of the history of flying machines (Anderson 1998), and as a pioneer of bio-inspired or biomimetic design (Starnazzi 2008).

Biomimicry is a design and engineering practice which draws inspiration from nature, integrating natural 'principles' into the design and creation of technologies (see Biomimicry Institute 2015; Johnson 2010, 2015). From AeroVironment's famous Nano-Hummingbird (pictured below), to Boston Engineering's tuna fish inspired BIOSwimmer (Boston Engineering 2015), the turn to the biological as inspirational in the design of contemporary drone technologies is a thriving growth area across contemporary global defence industries. In addition to the research accompanying the engineering of such technologies, there is a growing body of scholarship dedicated to exploring social, political and cultural questions raised by this emergent area (see Goldstein and Johnson 2015; Johnson 2010, 2015; Johnson and Goldstein 2015; Kosek 2010).

Nano Hummingbird. Source: AeroVironment (2015).

Seeking to compliment an interest in these excellent explorations, I travelled to Florence to begin and develop an investigation into the antecedent aesthetic and functional imaginations underpinning such proliferating contemporary technologies. The trip involved visits to a series of museums and sites dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci's famous codices, those filled with countless sketches and designs of bio-inspired flying and war machines. I began at the globally-travelled Le Macchine di Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Galleria Michelangelo, home to over 50 faithfully-crafted model reconstructions of da Vinci's sketches. The museum houses four themed rooms, containing civil, flying, war, and anatomical models (one room pictured below).

da Vinci models, Le Macchine di Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Author's photo.

Particular highlights included seeing the sketches and codices enlivened in these models, and engaging with various interactive machines. In addition to the museum commentary, an informative educational DVD was looped, detailing da Vinci's career as a painter, cartographer and military engineer, and describing his fascinating relationship with nature. Numerous models and resources were dedicated to da Vinci's sketches of flight and flying machines, inspired by the bird (see below), expressing da Vinci's conception of nature as "the ultimate machine".

Model of a wing, Le Macchine di Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Author's photo.

Studies for a flying machine. Source: Zöllner (2003).

I also visited the Leonardo da Vinci museum, housing additional models and further contextual information regarding da Vinci's various bio-inspired design involvements in the mechanics of both war and civil life in the 15th and 16th century. I went on to explore the dedicated da Vinci space in the Uffizi Gallery. Visits to these exhibits, alongside a series of additional sites in Florence, have been hugely valuable in aiding the development of a project beginning to reflect upon the historical lineages of the design, aesthetic and functional conventions underpinning contemporary biomimetic 'unmanned' robotics. This unfolding interdisciplinary project will occupy and explore the intersections of design history and historical, cultural, and political geography to explore the design lineages of the "signature device of the moment" , the drone (Noys 2014: 2).
I am extremely grateful to the Design History Society for funding and facilitating this fascinating trip which will be of enormous value in my continued research within and beyond the remit of my doctoral thesis.

Anna Jackman

For more information about my research, please visit my University profile at: https://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/annajackman/ and Twitter profile: @ahjackman